Following Donald Trump’s election victory, social media platforms were flooded with memes depicting the wailing and gnashing of teeth among Democrats bemoaning their loss. Some of these memes took a dig at the alleged historical predilection of Democrats for slavery. In a time when the subject of slavery is deemed to be so sensitive that the language police scold everyone on how to describe slaves—the new rule being that one must say “enslaved person” and not “slave”—it is ironic to see a subject that is usually treated with exaggerated solemnity and respect being subjected to derision and mirth under the guise of taking potshots at the Democrats.

The principle seems to be that we should not speak disrespectfully about slaves, unless the aim is to poke fun at Democrats. A typical rendition of this puerile humor is that “Democrats haven’t been this upset since Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves!” A t-shirt with Lincoln’s face emblazoned on it declares, “I haven’t seen the Democrats this mad since we took away their slaves!”—which is farcical to anyone who knows the real Lincoln had no desire to take away anyone’s slaves. The memes would not seem quite so witty if they read, “Democrats are upset at losing their enslaved persons!”

In the immigration debates, the Democrats’ opposition to mass deportation is also linked to a desire to keep slaves, provoking cheap shots about how hilarious it is that Democrats are wondering who will pick their cotton if their slaves are freed. Purveyors of this type of political foolery also link the Democratic Party to the KKK, with a play on the spelling as “DemoKKKratic” Party coupled with photographs of the KKK parading in New York waving the American flag. The premise of all this buffoonery is that today’s Democratic Party can be traced back in an unbroken line to the Democratic Party of the nineteenth century, and that today’s Democrats can therefore be criticized by reference to what their “predecessors” did in centuries past. Paul Gottfried captures very well the hypocrisy of Republicans who resort to nineteenth century analogies in an attempt to signal their virtue, pointing out that the Republican grasp of the political players in 1850 is completely wrong………..

This brief overview illustrates that a tunnel-vision focus on slavery as the only issue (or the main issue) worth studying in understanding political history obscures many other events essential to understanding the era. Depicting Southern Democrats as men whose only concern in life was to avoid Republicans taking away their slaves is simplistic and juvenile. It impedes the efforts to acquire a better understanding of who Southern Democrats were, and erases from public view their deep commitment to Jeffersonian ideals. Of these men, Reese concludes:

So to add to the definition of Jeffersonian Democrats, they were a majority of the Founding Fathers, a majority who fought the American Revolution, a majority who wrote the Constitution, and a majority who fought for Southern independence. No wonder the precious few still extant make big-government lovers so nervous.